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AN 



ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE A MEETING 

OF THE 

MEMBERS AND FRIENDS 

OF THE 

PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY 

DURING THE ANNUAL FAIR 

DECEMBER 19, 1849. 

BY W. H. FURNESS. 



Philadelphia: 

M e r r i h e w & Thompson, Printers, 

No. 7 Carter's Alley. 

1850. 



AN 

ADDRESS 

' DELIVERED BEFORE A MEETING 

OF THE 

MEMBERS AND FRIENDS 

OP THE 

PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY 

DURING THE ANNUAL FAIR 

DECEMBER 19, 1849. 

BY W. H. FURNESS. 



Philadelphia: 

Mekiihew & Thompson, Printers, 

No. 7 Carter's Alley. 

1850. 



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ADDRESS. 

The history of Abolitionism is full of encouragement. 
From the time when — about a short quarter of a century 
ago — all that could be discovered of it was a white man 
and a black boy laboring in the office of the Liberator, 
up to this present moment, the course of this great doctrine of 
Humanity has been a most animating illustration of progress 
and of victory. As we look back upon it, man, individual 
men, the men and women who have been its ministers and 
instruments, disappear ; and we seem to be observing a great 
process of Nature — the goings of the Almighty. 

So manifest is it that in this movement an eternal law of 
Nature has been at work, entering into the hearts of men, sub- 
duing their reluctance to receive it, awakening and enlisting 
all their energies, and coming forth to demand recognition and 
obedience, that nothing could well seem more childish than the 
fault which is found with those who have undertaken the 
maintenance of this law. It is very common for grave 
statesmen and dignified persons to express, in terms more or 
less strong, their regret, and their disapproval of the ignorance 
and folly and fanaticism and violence, and I know not what, of 
those who have been known as Abolitionists ; all which regret 
and disapproval are becoming as ridiculous as the mop 
with which Mrs. Partington undertook to sweep back the 
Atlantic ocean. I am not disposed to admit that the 
friends of Freedom have been particularly ignorant or foolish 
or fanatical or violent. I have never heard of their shedding 



any blood, or even of their threatening to shed any, and this is 
more than can be said of some of their opponents, who stand, too, 
among the highest in the land. But even if they were foolish 
and violent, 1 doubt whether any folly of theirs has exceeded the 
folly of those who object totheimperfectionsofmen and overlook 
the mighty work of God. I find it hard to understand how any 
thoughtful, intelligent man can fail to see that this cause of the 
Abolition of American slavery involves as its central life the 
first great principle of our social order, the radical truth of the 
Religion of Christendom, the eternal law of Justice and Hu- 
manity. If the solid earth on which we stand, if the great 
heaven over our heads, be a fact, then is human freedom a fact 
also, which must be realized ; and whatever may be the defects 
of the individuals who study and labor for the liberation of 
man, I see in the thing itself, a natural growth, which must come, 
a product of nature, a work of God, like the light and the air. 
It is no creation of man's fancy, no caprice of man's self will, no 
device or hobby of man. It has its existence in the nature of 
things. And it must needs assert its existence ; and we might 
as well resent the sun's rising as the growth and dissemi- 
nation of those principles for the sake of which you, my 
friends, are associated. I say, therefore, that Abolitionism, 
with whatever imperfections and infirmities it may be con- 
nected, is the embodiment and expression of a higher will than 
man's. It lies not in your will that you are Abolitionists. 
You must needs be so ; you cannot help it. You have not 
chosen this truth, but this truth has chosen you, and or- 
dained you that ye should go and bring forth such fruits as 
ye have produced and are producing. 

But all this is apparent, not only from the essential nature 
of Abolitionism, being identical with the law of Justice and 
Love, the acknowledged principles of our Religion, but also, 
as I began with remarking, from its history, which has been 



one steady course of triumph. This manifests the presence of 
a more than human power. This shows us the working of 
Nature and of Providence. 

I shall not attempt to go into the particulars of this history. 
Even if I were able to tell it, it would be scarcely necessary 
here and now ; for the members of this Society have been 
among the earliest witnesses of the progress of the Anti-Slavery 
cause. They have been sharers in its fortunes. Its history is 
theirs, and that of their associates and friends. And I might 
as well bring coals to Pennsylvania, or carry granite to New 
Hampshire, as undertake to tell you how the cause for which 
many of you are living and laboring has sped. From the 
moment William Lloyd Garrison publicly declared that the hold- 
ing a man as a slave, is not only an evil and curse, but a 
moral wrong, a violation of God's law, and as such to be ab- 
stained from instantly, from that moment you have seen how this 
word has vindicated its truth and vitality by the agitation it has 
occasioned. You know how it has stirred the whole land ; how it 
has travelled through all highways and byways; how it has com- 
manded and fixed public attention, shaking in pieces old and 
time-honored ecclesiastical organizations, attracting the re- 
gards of eminent men like Channing, and making them its 
servants, inspiring distinguished statesmen like Adams, whom 
it crowned with his highest glory, bursting like some 
magic gas into our national councils and throwing men into 
convulsions of rage and fear. At every meeting that you have 
held, you have had some new triumph to celebrate. Every 
event that has befallen you has proved an occasion of rejoicing, 
a new spring of animation. And now, at home and abroad, 
so much is occurring to inspire every heart that beats for Free- 
dom, that though you were to hold such meetings as this every 
day, every day you would have to note a new step taken to- 
wards the consummation you so devoutly wish for. 



At this present moment, the National Legislature, the central 
government of this great empire, is brought to a stand-still by 
the intrusion of your great principle. The two political parties 
which have hitherto divided the country between them, are 
rendered powerless. They cannot stir hand or foot. One or 
the other of them has always had its way, and now they are 
both baulked; and fruitful as politicians are in the most beau- 
tiful compromises, and in the most skilful management, the 
representatives of the nation, more than two hundred busy and 
ready-witted individuals, cannot get organized. They have 
been winding up the political machine, winding and winding, 
day after day, for weeks, but the clock will not strike, the 
wheels will not go. A great deal of vexation and indignation 
is expressed, but there the machine stands. It will not stir. 
Every thing would get into order, it is commonly said, and go 
on smoothly enough, if it were not for a little dust — a little 
free soil — which has got in among the works and is absorbing 
all the* oil ; if It were not, in plainer terms, for the outrageous 
obstinacy of a few wrong-headed and perverse individuals called 
Free Soilers. Now these individuals may be wrong-headed, and 
perverse,and obstinate,althoughthe fact that the most prominent 
of them have shown a disposition to fall in with either of the 
two great parties, provided an object which they desire, which 
is perfectly constitutional to say the least, is secured, (a fair 
construction of certain committees,) — although this fact, I say, 
is no great evidence of perversity. But if they were 
altogether unreasonable and perverse, they could not possibly 
stand their ground as they do. They would have been put 
down long ago. The whole country would have risen against 
them. Not merely by the power of a majority, but in the great 
power of wisdom and reason, their fellow members would have 
brought them to terms in a few hours. But they have not yet 
forsaken their ground. The country has not yet risen against 



them. The majority has not yet put them down. And the 
reason is, however wrong-headed they may be, they are con- 
scious that they are standing upon a plain principle of Right 
and Humanity. Underneath the narrow doctrine of Free Soil- 
ism, a larger and stronger truth lies, from which its adherents 
derive power. Let them be never so self-willed, they know 
that they have right on their side, that there is an eternal law 
of God for them to be faithful to. And their opponents know 
this too, or, if they do not, strictly speaking, know it, they feel 
it. They feel that there is something in the way which they 
cannot demonstrate, even to their own satisfaction, to be un- 
reasonable and wrong, and the country feels this too, and so the 
contest is left to go on. How it will terminate we can only 
guess. We all know that one of the great political parties is 
pretty strong in its party allegiance, and the other great 
party very accommodating, and they may settle it between 
them.* But be this as it may, I congratulate you, friends, on 
the power of your cause, on this new and animating evidence, 
that it is the cause of Truth and of God. 

I suppose there are a great many persons who look upon 
the state of things which has existed now for some weeks, in 
our National Legislature, with real anxiety ; but I do not 
imagine that any Abolitionist, that any one who has close 

* Since the above was delivered a Speaker has been elected. 

" For this most happy result," says the North American of the 24th 
inst., " the country is indebted entirely to the patriotism of the "Whig 
members of the House ; and it is right that the country should know 
and remember it. It is they, and they alone, who have proved themselves 
capable of sacrificing the interests of party on the altar of their country ; 
and it was entirely by such a sacrifice of party interest that they re- 
deemed the country — saved it from the great danger in which it has 
been kept for three weeks by the insanity of a hateful faction, to which 
patriotism has ceased even to be a pretence. The Democratic members 
were willing — yet not all willing — to befriend the country ; but they 
demanded a pi'ice, and the Whigs have paid it ; it is the election of a 
Democratic Speaker by Whig votes which has saved the republic." 



8 

at heart the cause of human rights, sympathises with 
such apprehensions. There would seem indeed to be an alarming 
symptom of social disorganization, when the government of the 
country will not work ; when its machinery will not go. But 
the cause of the difficulty is the thing to be looked at. If the 
wheels of Government stop because a right principle has be- 
come strong enough in its councils to prevent its moving any 
longer in a wrong direction, because Freedom and Justice and 
Humanity, instead of being vague abstractions hovering over the 
heads of men, are coming down into their hearts and getting 
embodied in the active sentiments, in the will, and so becoming 
fixed into the condition of things as facts — if such is the source 
of the difficulty, there is no occasion of anxietyj but abundant 
reason for rejoicing and encouragement. It is order, not chaos, 
that is coming. The kingdom of heaven, the dominion of right 
is at hand. 

That such actually is the cause of this confusion in the 
councils of the nation, we have abundant evidence. The 
whole course of things recently, shows that a higher interest 
than that of banks and tariffs is beginning to animate political 
parties, and take possession of the public mind. It is becoming 
apparent to all that there is one question, which is the question 
of the day, and which will thrust all other things aside until it 
is settled ; and that it is a question that implicates the dearest 
rights of man, the most vital considerations, the establishment 
of equal justice, the entire abolition of all wrong. Before its 
increasing influence, which is rising like the wind, all mere 
political arrangements are beginning to betray their weakness 
and inefficiency. There may be a lull in the breeze at times, 
and occasionally it may seem to die wholly away; but it only 
pauses to gain new strength — to blow with greater power. 
Political parties watch for it, and trim their sails accordingly. 
We have seen the Whigs claiming to be Free Soilers, though 



they would not venture to assume the name, or accept as 
their own the triumphs of Free Soil; and the great Democratic 
Party, which has for the most part ruled the country, has 
been broken in two. The breach has been healed indeed, after 
a fashion, and with small honor; still, although once so compact 
and complete in its organization, it shows marks of beinc 
sorely weatherbeaten. In and through all the events which 
make up our political history for the last few years, we may 
see that there is a force, a law, a power at w r ork which is above 
us all. It is not man merely, but Truth, Nature, God, who is 
stirring in our land. Let it be that there has been ignorance and 
folly and violence, of one kind or another, more or less all round, 
still, in and through all, the Eternal Law of Right has been 
coming into operation. It must come. No power on earth 
can stop it. To Abolitionists this is very plain. It is plain to 
every man who seeks to see things as they are. But it is not 
plain to those who take counsel only of their own prejudices 
and interests. It is not plain to those who hold the small taper 
of their own pride of opinion so close to their eyes, that their sight, 
dazzled and blinded, extends only a very few inches. Still, it 
is growing plainer and plainer every day; and the time will 
shortly come when it will be so plain, that it will be palpable to 
the blindest that it is the kingdom of God which is coming, and 
that it is as preposterous to resist it as to attempt to resist the 
law of gravitation. 

I do not know, friends, whether you ever grow weary and 
desponding. I do not see why you should, amidst the numerous 
tokens of success which greet every step of your progress. 
But when the heart that has been touched with a sense of the 
wrongs inflicted upon the slave does grow weary and faint, let 
it be strengthened anew to its blessed work by the simple con- 
sideration which I have tried to make prominent, viz: that the 
cause of Abolition is not of man's devising. It is not the 



10 

invention of human wit, liable,. like all human works, to decay 
and destruction." It is the cause of truth — of all that is just 
and humane. Freedom, Righf, Love, are not human fictions. 
They are the prime interests of the Universe, the eternal will of 
God. All nature is constructed for their furtherance. This 
faith, steadily cherished, must dissipate all despondency, and 
animate us to persevering exertion. 

The political history of our country, since the A nti- Slavery 
movement commenced, is full of lessons. It is very instructive. 
It reveals, as I have said, the simple working of nature, and so 
clearly, that all who are interested for freedom against slavery, 
cannot but be conscious that power is' on their side,- and that 
the opposition which is made to it must come to naught. 

I proceed to mention another lesson which this same history 
teaches, the identity of Principle and Policy, of Right and 
Expediency, in the largest sense of these words. What is 
right ? is one question. What is expedient ? is another and 
different question. And yet, rightly considered, they bring us 
the same answer; and right is found to be expedient, and 
expediency found to be right. And this the history of Aboli- 
tionism shows most clearly. The Abolitionists have taken their 
stand upon the simple ground of right. They recognise the 
natural dictates of Justice and Humanity as their commanding 
principles of action. They believe that the law which requires 
us to undo the heavy burthens, and let the oppressed go free, 
is the command of nature and of God. And they strive in 
every way to obey and press home upon men the supreme 
authority of this Maw. What though it irritates and inflames 
bad passions, though it produces excitement and uproar, and 
makes the civil fabric shake to its foundations, yet they waver 
not in their course, simply because they have entire confidence 
that whatever God commands to be done, may be done with 



11 

the very best results ultimately to all interested. What though 
they are utterly unable to see how any good can come out of 
it — although, as far as their sight extends, nothing is visible 
but confusion and evil ? That is not their concern. They are 
here, living and breathing, simply to do what is required of 
them, and nothing less, and all that they hold dear on earth is 
to be accounted as dust, if it come in conflict with this plain 
obligation. They say with Luther, " Here we stand. We 
cannot otherwise. God help us." Like the great Reformer, 
they, too, "would gladly have good quiet days, and live unper- 
plexed," but a necessity is upon them. They have caught 
sight of the Everlasting Law in relation to the mighty wrong 
which this Christian nation fosters in its bosom, and they must 
be obedient to the heavenly vision. Speaking, working in 
this faith, they have pleaded and are pleading with their 
countrymen. They have borne obloquy, misrepresentation, 
violence. They have shrunk from no toil or danger. 

And how now have the Abolitionists been regarded ? Why, 
they are spoken of everywhere as the blindest of the blind, as 
people who have thrown away reason, mad enthusiasts, fanatics, 
who fling firebrands about and have no care for consequences. 
No care for consequences! What are, the consequences which 
they were aiming at? What is the result which they have 
sought to bring about? Why, they have sought to awaken the 
country to the worth of Freedom, to the wrongfulness of Slavery. 
And lo ! the country is awaking. They would have us wide 
awake to this matter. And behold ! the country is getting wide 
awake, slowly, indeed, but steadily. The very thing which 
it was their purpose to accomplish is being accomplished. 
Does not the result show then that they have taken the very 
best way, the wisest, the most politic way, to effect the object 
they have had in view? Is not their fearless and uncompro- 



12 

raising fidelity to principle proved by its consequences to be 
the very soundest policy, the most admirable statesmanship? 
Is it not seen to be the very expedient best adapted to 
their end ? They have labored, and are laboring, to elevate 
the temperature of Anti-Slavery feeling, until it shall rise 
to that fervent heat which shall consume every chain in 
the land, converting it from solid iron into impalpable air. 
And this purpose is in steady course of fulfilment. Is there any 
policy, commonly so called, — any political management or 
party, that could accomplish, or ever has accomplished, a like 
thing in so short a time? Truly, the Abolitionists, though many 
of them are women, have, almost without intending it, at all 
events without taking to themselves any credit for it, practised 
most excellent statesmanship. 

And now let us see what is the amount of that policy which 
the world thinks so much of. I think if we look at it earnestly, 
we shall confess that it is so narrow, so very short-sighted, that 
it does not deserve the name even of policy, in any large and 
manly sense of the word. The thorough politician, commonly 
so styled, distrusts those simple dictates of right which are the 
unquestionable laws of God, and to which the Abolitionist clings 
without making any stipulation for his own safety, or for the 
safety of any interests whatever. The politician is not willing 
to yield himself wholly to the guidance of those simple prin- 
ciples. He follows them only so far as he can see with his 
own limited vision that they will not interfere with his own 
personal success, or the interests of his party. He cannot 
renounce them altogether. He cannot be so absurd as to- 
maintain, for instance, that equal justice is an evil, and freedom 
a curse, and mercy a wrong. It is true, we hear occasionally 
of one and another who say that Slavery is a blessed, a divine 
institution, but we have never heard of any one so sincere in 



13 

this opinion, that he wished that he and his wife and children 
were slaves. We all, in this part of the world at least, admit 
the wrongfulness of oppression, the inalienable right of man to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Still, clear as this 
is to us, yet when we act politically, we are afraid of these 
truths. We cannot venture to surrender ourselves to them as 
guiding principles. We prefer, and this we call a wise 
expediency, to put our confidence in some political arrange- 
ment, in a Constitution confessedly the device of human 
wisdom, the work of men who never claimed to be inspired, 
or in some party, or some coalition of parties. These 
are the things irr which men are counselled to put their main 
trust. These are the expedients by which the great hopes of 
mankind are to be accomplished. And so passionate, so blind 
is the confidence of men in things of this kind, that to preserve 
a constitution inviolate, or to secure the ascendancy of a party, 
they consent to repress the strongest instincts of humanity. 
They would silence those who assert the eternal laws of God. 
They are willing that millions should languish in brutal ignor- 
ance and hopeless bondage, and are ready themselves to be 
slaves. And in doing so, they fancy all the while that they 
are the wise men and the prudent, that they understand the 
thing ; while such as contend for instant submission to an 
eternal law are unreasoning enthusiasts, the wretched victims of 
one idea. 

Is it not now worth while to consider which is the part of 
wisdom, which, in the long run, is most expedient for us, for 
the whole country, for the whole world : to rely upon those 
plain dictates of Right and Love, which are written by the finger 
of God upon the universal heart of man, or to place all our 
confidence in the success of some political contrivance or party, 
the work, not of nature, or the God of nature, but of men ; of 



14 

men, too, who, for the most part, as everybody is saying, have some 
motive of personal ambition ; of men who are caring anxiously 
for money and for office ? Which, it certainly becomes us to 
ask, which is the wisest, the most expedient, to trust in those 
primal principles, which have again and again shown them- 
selves so mighty, and which have just been shaking the old 
world to its centre, or to embark all our hopes in some frail 
political device, which may be defeated utterly, as political 
parties are defeated almost every hour ? Which faith has most 
reason in it, shows the most comprehensive outlook, nay, which 
is the soundest expediency? Which is most worthy an intelli- 
gent man to rest in, principles inwrought into the very nature of 
all men, and with which all Nature conspires, and God himself, 
the Fountain of all Power and Wisdom, or in those superficial 
plans which are always dependent on contingencies over which 
we can have no control, and which, by their failure, may at 
any moment dash the fairest purposes ? Let him who would 
be prudent, let him who would be politic — in the name of 
reason, let him once for all, and for ever, put his whole trust in 
the eternal law. 

There is not a man of any intelligence and observation who 
does not see what poor things our political parties are, by what 
self-seeking management they are ruled, and how their zeal is 
inflamed by the forgetfulness of truth, and by most ruthless 
mutual denunciations. It needs no study to find this out. In 
the newspapers, which constitute almost the sole reading of 
the multitude, he who runs may read and see what small 
means those are, by which so many are vaguely expecting 
that the world is to be carried forward to universal freedom. 

If any one wants to be satisfied of the inexpediency 
of mere political arrangements, the impolicy of politicians, let 
him just cast a glance back upon our recent political history. 



15 

Some years ago the Whigs nominated for President a Northern 
General. They relied upon the magic of a military title. They 
attributed General Jackson's triumph in great part to that ; so 
they concluded that General Harrison was the available man 
for the Presidency ; and then they took up for Vice President a 
Southern man, whose party attachments were doubtful, and 
this was considered as confirming his availability. This was 
believed to be an admirable political move. And, as politics 
go, it certainly did bid pretty fair for the party. But in a short 
month after his election General Harrison died, of the Presidency, 
as it has been said ; and the administration passed into the 
hands of one in whom the party that elected him could have 
no confidence. Here the whole plan went to wreck. Ah! but, 
you say, Providence, by the death of General Harrison, inter- 
fered. Providence is very apt to interfere in such a way; and 
wise men ought to have kept Providence in view. Put your 
trust in everlasting principles, and you need never fear that any 
possible event of Providence will work in any way except to 
help them. 

So, again, the Democratic Party thought the Mexican war a 
capital move, and the gold of California, which, however, 
unknown at the time, did not enter into the original consideration, 
would seem to show that it was a capital move. But if it had 
been foreseen that the war would produce a President for the 
opposite party, and that the territory that might be acquired, 
rich as it might be, might be free also, as well as rich, would 
not the Southern portion of the Democracy at least, have 
thought twice before they plunged the country into that abyss 
of blood and wrong ? 

Or once more, to go no farther back than the last Presi- 
dential election. We were promised all imaginable good if 
General Taylor were only made President. And thousands 



16 

seemed honestly to believe that something very like a Millenium 
was at hand. Now I do not undertake to know, but the ardor 
of the party that elected the present incumbent seems to be 
somehow cooled. They see that they have ot carried the 
country as they anticipated. There appears to be among them 
a dim misgiving that a mistake has been made. 

And so it is with all mere political plans and parties. Mr. 
Carlyle tells us, in his History of the French Revolution, that 
during that period of anarchy and blood, the people were 
fondly hoping every day to wake up the next morning and 
witness the Millenium, but every day they were vexed and 
maddened at finding their pockets picked of their Millenium. 
Their case was by no means singular. It is apt to be so in 
political matters. The politicians, like the monkey in the fable, 
take the oyster and give the shells to the country. 

In conclusion, whether the great principles of our social order 
are carried out soon or late, the work of carrying them out 
must needs be salutary to all concerned. The heroic ages of 
history, are those in which great principles have contended for 
the supremacy. Whether you do good to others or not, by advo- 
cating the Right, you do an unutterable good to yourselves. 
There is nothing better for any human soul than to become 
interested in great vital truths, in truths which are truths. Let 
one give himself to the service of Freedom, nay, let him only 
so much as touch, in faith, the hem of her garment, and it will 
send an invigorating virtue through his whole frame, and he 
will begin to experience the new birth, the saving, sanctifying 
process of regeneration. 



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